McD's opening corporate office in River North

McDonald's will open a corporate office in River North in the first quarter of 2015 in a play to recruit better tech talent, an executive said tonight.

Some of the company's growing digital strategy team, designers and business development employees are expected to move into the new office from corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, said Steve Easterbrook, senior executive vice president and global chief brand officer.

"Having boots on the ground in the city is a huge opportunity for us," Easterbrook said following an innovation event downtown.

He declined to say how many employees would make the move or the precise location of the outpost but said some workers would begin moving over as soon as January.

This marks the first Chicago office for the fast-food giant since the company's earliest days, before headquarters moved to Oak Brook.

Easterbrook said part of the digital team, which has about 20 U.S. employees today, is expected to grow to between 250 and 300 employees by the end of 2015.

Some of the digital team will remain in Oak Brook because, Easterbrook said, "we need to change our culture" at headquarters.

The company also opened a satellite office in San Francisco earlier this year, in part to take advantage of that region's tech community.

"We're in a continual fight for talent" in tech, he said. "We have to do whatever we can to compete."

McDonald's isn't the first big suburban company to set up a Chicago outpost to attract younger, tech-oriented talent. Motorola Mobility traded its Libertyville headquarters campus for space at Chicago's Merchandise Mart. Those offices opened in April. And Kraft Foods, historically based in Northfield, created a downtown marketing office after the company split off from Mondelez in 2012.